Tag: Secret Service

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Barack Obama Social Media

Secret Service Alerted After Michael Flynn Posts Online Message ‘Threatening’ Barack Obama

The United States Secret Service was flagged after retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn posted on Twitter that former President Barack Obama “must be held accountable.”

Flynn was responding to another Twitter user’s message: “Never Forget who these people are and what they did!” 

That led Flynn to reply, “I’m like an elephant, except I’m an Irish elephant. Not only will I never forget, I will never forgive. People must be held accountable.”

“And you all know precisely who you are. [Obama] yup, starts with you,” Flynn said. “You tried to destroy my family as well as [Trump] and his family along with our country…unforgivable,” Flynn added.

Investigative reporter Dave Troy flagged Flynn’s posting with a note calling for the Secret Service to get involved.

“No big deal. Just a Putin-aligned retired general threatening a former president. What do you say@SecretService, does he get a doorknock, or are we no longer in that business? The public wants to know.@POTUS @NatSecCNN“

Flynn has hated Obama ever since the former president warned Donald Trump not to hire the ex-general for a position in his first administration.

“Former President Obama warned President Donald Trump against hiring Mike Flynn as his national security adviser, three former Obama administration officials tell NBC News.”

“The warning, which has not been previously reported, came less than 48 hours after the November election when the two sat down for a 90-minute conversation in the Oval Office.”

Despite that warning, Trump hired Flynn as his national security adviser, only to sack him three weeks later for lying to then-Vice President Mike Pence when asked about conversations he’d had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. regarding the easing of sanctions on Russia.

It remains unclear if Trump will bring Flynn back once he takes office again in January. Could Flynn even pass a security check or be trusted with classified information?

Of course, considering that Trump himself stored classified documents in unsecured locations at his Mar-a-Lago resort, national security doesn’t exactly seem to be a high priority for Donald or those around him.

 

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Crime Donald Trump

Trump Could Lose Secret Service Protection And Other Perks Under New Laws

Convicted felon Donald Trump could wind up without any protection from the U.S. Secret Service, along with other perks normally given to former presidents under a new law that would strip those benefits away from any ex-head of state who is convicted of a felony.

Two House Democrats have proposed legislation that would have a major impact on Trump, according to HuffPost.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) introduced one of the bills and said he did so after heading up the House committee that looked at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol.

“I was disappointed in how the president conducted himself as president. He put a lot of people’s lives in danger. So I saw that,” Thompson told HuffPost.

“But more importantly, why would you want to protect a felon?”

Like other ex-presidents, Trump currently receives a security detail provided by American taxpayers, along with a yearly pension of $246,400, and a budget for travel, office space, and staff.

But Thompson’s legislation would disallow Trump from any of those perks because he was found guilty on 34 criminal charges in Manhattan.

Rep. Laura Sanchez (D-CA) is also proposing a bill, named the “No Glory for Hate Act” that would do many of the same things as Thompson’s proposal.

“I first introduced this bill after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Since then, Trump continues to be a threat to our democracy. His behavior and the hatred he spews has become increasingly hostile. This is not someone who belongs back in the White House and certainly not someone who deserves monuments built in his honor,” Sanchez explained.

As you’d expect, Republicans are outraged that Trump might lose his security detail because he’s a criminal, with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) whining, “You have a member of Congress that actually introduced legislation to take away his Secret Service and his personal security, basically saying that they would like to expose him to physical harm, danger, maybe even assassination.”

Oh well, Andy. As the old saying goes, Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration WTF?!

Rudy Giuliani Was Given Secret Service Protection On January 6 – Why?

The House select committee investigating what transpired at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 is holding its first public hearing today, and it’s expected most of the testimony will come from police officers serving in the departments that were called to protect the Capitol on that fateful afternoon.

But in the days and weeks yet to come, there will be many more hearings — some public and some held behind closed doors for security reasons — that will widen the scope of inquiry for the committee and hopefully provide us all with more information about what happened that day and how we can prevent such a horrific event from taking place again.

Just Security had two former U.S. Attorneys (Barbara McQuade and Joyce Vance) sit down with Ryan Goodman, who serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of Just Security, and come up with questions that need to be asked by the committee.

At one point in their extensive document, we learn that on the day of the Capitol insurrection, former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was given Secret Service protection, which is highly unusual. That led to these questions:

“Are you aware that Rudy Giuliani received Secret Service Protection on Jan. 6? Were you aware of communications as to whether he should receive Secret Service Protection? What senior U.S. officials were involved in that decision? Were you aware of anyone raising concerns about whether it was appropriate to provide Secret Service protection to someone so far outside the ambit of normal protectees?”

We have this information thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by public advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW):

Giuliani played a key role in the buildup to the Capitol riots, giving a speech with then-President Donald Trump’s blessings in which he urged the crowd:

“Let’s have trial by combat!”

Giuliani will likely be called (or subpoenaed) by the select committee, and considering the fact that he received Secret Service protection on the very same day he basically called for the violent overthrow of the government, he damn well should be.

But why was that protection afforded to him, and who ordered it? Only a few high-ranking White House officials could have made such a request of the Secret Service.

The fact that Giuliani was given such enhanced security suggests that the person or persons who thought that necessary knew in advance that actions were planned which would put him at risk, and that points to a larger conspiracy that may well reach all the way to the Oval Office.

The House select committee has its hands full. But as McQuade and Vance rightly suggest, they shouldn’t be satisfied until they get the answers the American people deserve.